Newfoundland and Labrador skip Brad Gushue reacts to one of his shots during the afternoon draw against Quebec at the Tim Hortons Brier in Edmonton on Friday, March 8, 2013. Gushue beat Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard 5-4 to clinch a playoff berth. Photo by Jonathan Hayward, The Canadian Press

Even when Kevin Martin isn’t playing, it’s all about him. At least it is when the games are being played in his hometown and he’s in danger of missing the playoffs at the 2013 Tim Hortons Brier.

The Alberta skip is in need of some help to qualify for the playoffs, and on Friday afternoon, he didn’t get it.

Martin would have his cause aided by a Quebec win over Newfoundland and Labrador, and a Saskatchewan victory over Quebec in the evening draw, to give both losing clubs four losses in round-robin play, to match Alberta’s 6-4 record.

Instead, Newfoundland pulled out a 5-4 win, clinched a playoff berth of its own and made the road to the playoffs a little rockier for Martin.

“It doesn’t look good for Kevin right now, but you’re still going to have a three-time Brier champion in Jeff (Stoughton) and it looks like Brad Jacobs might get in, too, and (Northern Ontario) is a quality team, they’re very strong,” Newfoundland and Labrador skip Brad Gushue said.

Martin’s not out yet, but he needs an upset to take place where one of Northern Ontario or Manitoba would lose their games against Nova Scotia and B.C., respectively. Martin also has to beat Ontario’s Glenn Howard — something that no one has been able to do this year at the Brier.

Gushue’s win put an end to the three-game slide he and his team of Brett Gallant, Adam Casey, Geoff Walker and Jamie Korab were on. The team had jumped out to a 7-0 start prior to that. While there’s still a chance that Gushue could end up in the one-two playoff game on Saturday night, he was prepping to play in the three-four game, since Stoughton and his Manitoba rink is 7-3 and facing 1-9 B.C. in Friday’s evening draw.

Howard’s Ontario rink is a perfect 10-0 and in front of the pack in the standings.

“We’re going to go out and throw some rocks (Friday night) and work out some kinks that we had and hopefully come out firing on all cylinders (Saturday) and play a good game, get ourselves in the semifinals and so on,” he said. “I shouldn’t be talking like that because there is a possibility of the one-two, but in all likelihood, we’re going to be in the three-four game.”

Jacobs and his Northern Ontario rink are back on track after dropping three of four games through Thursday. They continued their strong play with a 7-4, nine-end win on Friday afternoon over New Brunswick to swell their record to 7-3, good enough for the fourth spot in the standings.

Northern Ontario turned a 3-3 game through five ends into a 7-4 win, thanks to deuces in the sixth and eighth ends.

“It feels really good to go out and get that win. New Brunswick’s been playing really good all week,” Jacobs said. “I don’t think their record indicates how they’ve been playing. I think James (Grattan) has been making everything. He came up with some pretty good shots that game, too. It feels pretty good to get out of here with a win this afternoon.”

Jacobs faces Nova Scotia in the evening draw. If he wins against Paul Flemming, he’ll clinch a playoff spot.

“We can’t look around tonight at the other games. We have a job to do,” Jacobs said. “We know obviously that if we go out and win we’re in, so we need to stay on our sheet, put a bubble over it, focus and make our shots. I’m sure as long as we can do that the outcome will be favourable. We need to go out there and put in another solid performance.”

Already eliminated from the playoff hunt, Saskatchewan’s troubles continued on Friday afternoon. Brock Virtue’s rink gave up a five-ender in the ninth end to Jamie Koe’s Northwest Territories/Yukon team that yanked the game out from under them. The 10-6 loss dropped Saskatchewan to 4-6. The men in green will try to rebound against Quebec in the evening draw.

Koe now sits at 5-6.

Eddie MacKenzie’s P.E.I. rink picked up its second win of the week in a 5-4, 11-end battle with Nova Scotia. P.E.I. is now 2-9, while Nova Scotia fell to 1-9.

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